Ice Rink Development Will Not Come to St. Louis Co. Creve Coeur Park

11/13/17 UPDATE: A proposal to construct a hockey complex in St. Louis County’s CreveCoeur Lake Memorial Park which would have converted 40 acres of parkland in the floodplain to a massive hockey complex was called off Friday, Nov. 10th. The Post-Dispatch reported on the developers’ decision to rethink their plan to develop in the park in favor of another site in the Maryland Heights floodplain.

While floodplain developments are always a poor decision, we are pleased the Blues-backed project will not be constructed in the public park.

An ongoing effort to develop a new ice hockey recreation complex – originally in a public county park – has stirred controversy in the St. Louis region. As the County’s largest park, CreveCoeur Lake Memorial Park in Maryland Heights is home to numerous trails, park facilities, and a 320-acre ox-bow lake formed by a disconnected meander of the Missouri River. The park is often filled with families, joggers, cyclists, and fishing enthusiasts enjoying the park’s amenities. With over 1 million people visiting the park every year, the park offers the public a unique open and natural space to enjoy the outdoors within the St. Louis region. See MCE’s public comments on the proposal’s Environmental Assessment and subsequent letter to the Department of Natural Resources demonstrating the clear misrepresentation of the County’s grading and clearing of a forested area of the park as “normal stormwater management”.

A family plays on the beach at Creve Coeur Lake Park, Maryland Heights, MO.

A proposed project would convert 40 acres of the park into a 4,500 seat, 250,000 square foot, multi-story hockey complex with 1,000+ parking spaces – all within the Missouri River floodplain. MCE and many other groups believe there are many places in the St. Louis region better suited to locate a hockey complex – not in a floodplain and not in a public park.

Find your district on the county map and then email, call or write your county councilperson and the St. Louis County Executive to express your opposition to the development of our parkland by private interests!

The St. Louis Industrial Development Authority has taken steps to use public funds to finance the project. Thanks to the Open Space Council, there is a coordinated effort to block the project along with Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Greenway Network, and MCE.